`Lennon` A Well-researched Play, But Flawed In Delivery

The Contemporary Theatre Ensemble is a troupe made up mostly of young performers, many of them undergraduates, gifted with some surprisingly grown- up strengths.

They can read lines with a better-than-average crack at believability and create characters with careful gestures and details. On the other hand, they tend to nibble at what they can`t chew. Their last production, ``Cloud 9,``

was a mangled effort at a challenging and sophisticated play.

But that was a year ago, and now they`re back, performing the Midwest premiere of James McClure`s ``The Day They Shot John Lennon`` at Lifeline Productions. The production, while in many ways unsatisfying, demonstrates how far the group has come, both in terms of talent and grappling for more realistic goals. This is a play written to these actors and their generation. With a little more technical development and a slightly better script, the Contemporary Theatre Ensemble may well provide something that speaks quite powerfully to the rest of us.

For the moment, ``Lennon`` comes off as a nicely researched feature story turned into a badly structured play. Ironically, its worse flaw is that it is out of date. As drama, it plays like one of the weaker rambles of later Tennessee Williams. As urban street theater, it falls back on badly overworked cliches--mugging and the nightmares of the Vietnam veteran to provide the dramatic punch.

But the set-up is intriguing. McClure presents dips into a few select lives among the hordes who set up camp in front of the Dakota apartment in the hours after John Lennon`s assassination there. The cross-section is broad:

Sally (Pam Klier), Kevin (Michael Selby) and Mike (Bob Saxner), high school students robbed of a hero they barely got to know; Fran (Paula Stevens) and Brian (Robert Bella), yuppie professionals (we were calling them preppies then) who were both at Woodstock; Silvio (Bruce Burgun) and Gately (Steve Sawyer), crazed vets who have turned to street mugging; and Larry (Steven Pink), a young punk who strikes up an unlikely friendship with a grumbly old man (Patrick O`Neill).

Robert Patterson`s re-creation of a city street--mostly through a painted imitation on the stage floor--is appealingly real and funky. At times the performances hit the mark; director Adam Bitterman knows how to elicit moments of taut realism (especially from the trio of high schoolers) and convincing emotion.

But he doesn`t know how to build for a proper climax, and the final scene, an explosive mugging incident, drags on interminably and is staged without a hint of verisimilitude. As for McClure`s play, its own schematic design--which pretty much defines it--leaves room for only a stick figure examination of the lives involved. The characters are too busy being symbols to be human.

``The Day They Shot John Lennon``

A drama by James McClure, directed by Adam Bitterman, lighting by Howard J. Werner and sets by Robert Patterson. Opened July 18 and plays at 8 p.m. Thursday, 8 and 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 7 p.m. Sunday, through Aug. 11 at Lifeline Productions, 6912 N. Glenwood Ave. Length of performance, 1:45 hours. Tickets are $6 to $8. Phone 674-7785.